Tonight I had to be gone all of the early evening at a thingy for the co-op, and when I got home Brian was to leave almost immediately for a thingy at our church (boy, we're just a go-go-go group).  So we decided that B should take the kids out somewhere to eat, and get me a to-go order for when I got home.  They went to a hole-in-the-wall place we'd not tried yet but had heard much about.  I was looking forward to trying their food.

I couldn't help but notice the conspicuous lack of conversation about dinner when I got home, especially considering we were both terribly curious about how it would be.  I saw that he got me fried chicken, corn and fried potatoes, and a slice of pie.  This was exactly what I'd been in the mood for, and I told him so.  B replied, "Well, we'll see." 

In fact, it wasn't bad.  Not super great or anything, but perfectly fine.  Even the fried chicken, which typically has only two states, "Perfect" or "Er...", was okay, and I told Brian so.  He then confesses that his dinner was terrible, and the kids' dinner was well-nigh inedible (grilled chicken = leather, actually difficult to chew).  I haven't gotten to the pie yet; B hesitates and  then says, most diplomatically, "I usually expect a bit more from homemade pie."  Well, fair enough, I would still give it a try.

I take a bit of cherry pie.  Well, okay, not exactly a light-n-flaky crust, but not bad.  Canned cherries, I think, that's a disappointment.  But really, it's not that bad and... um... well, there is a kind of... now what is that flavor?  It's not very good and... uck, no, it, UGH, oh my god it, WRETCH WRETCH OMG THAT'S CIGARETTE ASH!!! 

*reel*

No, no, that's just not possible.  I'm hallucinating.  Maybe it was just a really weird and unfortunate combination of flavors.  *At this point in the story, I actually take another bite.*  Now see, that's not so bad, it's just OH NO IT'S CIGARETTE ASH AGAIN ACK ACK ACK...

I spent several minutes trying to get that flavor out of my mouth.  My best guess for how it tasted that was was that the room it was stored in was so damned smoky it just took on the flavor.  Brian's best guess is that the cook actually ashed in the pie.

OMG, that was so gross.

EDIT:  due to popular demand, I will reveal the source of the ultra-nasty pie... Uncle Herbies, corner of 25th and Maple.